The fear of the ocean

5 - Maelstrom

5 - Maelstrom

The first thing Jotaro saw was Hierophant Green sitting on the edge of Kakyoin's bed. When it heard the door opening, it's shiny green head jerked around, it's yellow eyes locking with Jotaro's. It doesn't attack, nor does it make any other movement. Jotaro quirks an eyebrow.

Why would Kakyoin's stand be out?

Jotaro walks into the room and closes the door quietly. He peeks over Hierophant Green to see Kakyoin curled up under the blankets, a little bit of his red hair sticking out from under the covers. Jotaro wants to wake him up, but god knows what could have gotten him so tired that he would sleep in such a tangle of sheets during the hottest period of the afternoon.

Jotaro manages to hold back and pulls up a chair for himself, settling it down gently beside Kakyoin's bed. He picks up one of the books from the shelf next to him and starts browsing through to get the idea and urge to wake his friend up out of his mind.

Kakyoin dreams deep. He finds himself lying down in a huge field of flowers which he couldn't name. The sky was a beautiful baby blue with cotton candy clouds, fluffy and white. A flock of birds soar past, a swarm of butterflies flutter over the swaying flowers. Kakyoin blinks.

What a dream.

He stands up and the field stretches on and on and on, continuing for eternity past the horizon. Hierophant Green stands next to him, staring at nothing.

"They say dreams are a collection of memories, the replay of events that have been witnessed, and even what one desires. What did we do to get this dream, huh?" Kakyoin wonders aloud. Hierophant Green doesn't reply as always, just continues staring.

Kakyoin walks out, Hierophant floating close behind. As he walks and walks, he sees sand, and as he trudges out into the sand, he sees water. It's as clear as crystal, as blue as could be. He looks into the water to see massive corals of all sorts of festive colors, fish of all kinds of species and shells of upmost beauty. Kakyoin was so enraptured that he didn't notice he was knee deep in the water, wanting to get a closer look. Hierophant Green reaches into the waters, and grabs onto a huge conch shell. Kakyoin dips his head under the gentle waves, opening his eyes. The sunlight filters through most beautifully, the seaweed stretching out from the sea bed to reach that light. A crab scuttles along, kicking up grains of golden sand. A fish kisses Kakyoin's face out of curiosity, zipping behind a huge head of coral when Kakyoin's focus shifts to look at it.

How could he fear such a beautiful place?

It was strange that he felt no fear towards the sea, even though he was in a dream. Usually, a look at even a grain of sand would send him panicking and sweating bullets. But the panic never came like it should.

Kakyoin decides to resurface, and kicks his legs, but he was deeper than he remembered. He was supposed to be only knee deep...

And his lungs constrict.

Hierophant Green is kneeling on the surface of the water, hand outstretched and unraveling to grab hold of Kakyoin. Even with him reaching his maximum range, Hierophant Green's fingers merely brush Kakyoin's.

The water grows darker, the fish disappear and the coral have all seemed to vanish. Kakyoin opens his mouth to shout, but not even a bubble comes out. With all his oxygen spent, his vision begins to blur at the edges, Hierophant Green, who was struggling to dive down into the water but strangely could not, was now a glowing blob. Kakyoin's outstretched hand a dollop of peach-colored appendages.

Kakyoin lets out a silent scream as he feels something grabbing him and suddenly dragging him deeper into the sea. The surface shrinking into a dot of light amidst the darkness, continuously shrinking and shrinking and when Kakyoin sees that the dot was a puny pinprick of light, he wakes up.